Universal pre-K: Don’t just think about yourself

It makes me sad that so many people seem to have the attitude that “I got mine, now you are on your own,” especially when they are talking about babies and preschoolers [“Why should everyone else pay for your children? ,” Northwest Voices, June 25].

Many babies are born into families that, for one reason or another, do not provide that child with the safety, support and intellectual stimulation that all babies need to thrive. These are the babies who need decent child care and preschool the most.

Without these services, they enter kindergarten already well behind their peers, both in terms of academic learning and in social areas such as empathy and getting along with others. And once they start behind (and with little support at home) they tend to slip more and more behind. Then come the feelings of hopelessness that “I can never compete on an equal footing, so I might as well give up.” So that makes another generation of dropouts, unemployment, welfare and possibly prison.

I think of education and child care as part of the infrastructure of our civilized society. Just as all of us benefit if the roads, water supply, and electrical grid work well, all of us benefit if all children have a good start in life.

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